Multicultural vs. Monocultural

"I'm predicting that America will no longer be one nation but more like the Roman Empire--a conglomerate of races and cultures held together by a regime. The country I grew up in was culturally united, even if it was racially divided. We spoke the same language, had the same faith, laughed at the same comedians. We were one nationality. We're ceasing to be that when you have hundreds of thousands of people who want to retain their own culture, their own language, their own loyalty. What do we have in common that makes us fellow Americans? Is it simply citizenship? Or is it blood, soil, history and heroes?"
- Pat Buchanan, commenting on the increasing multicultural nature of American society

"Privilege is invisible to those who have it."
- Anonymous

Ponder these two quotes if you will. They are more related then you think.

Pat Buchanan's comment is built on the assumption that there was a point in time in American history where only one culture existed. That's the fatal flaw in his ruminations. In the golden olden days of his youth, there may have been a white majority culture that was more prominent and far reaching than other cultures, but make no mistake that an equally well-defined underground culture brewed in hidden corners out of the sight of men like Mr. Buchanan and his peers. The Harlem Renassanice, Jazz, Rock and Roll...all these things are examples of cultural movements that began outside the boundaries of mainstream culture and were only adopted by "the white folk" after much denouncement and condemnation.

In my mind, Pat Buchanan's problem with multi-culturalism isn't the loss of a singular cultural context, he's just ticked off that he and his cohort (old, rich, white men) no longer hold the power to dictate the elements that define American culture.